2025 Badger 200


The 2025 Badger 200 was the 15th stock car race of the 2025 ARCA Menards Series season, and the 1st iteration of the event. The race was held on Friday, August 22, 2025, at Madison International Speedway in Rutland, Wisconsin, a 0.500 mile permanent oval-shaped short track. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete. In ARCA's first trip to Madison since 2019, Max Reaves, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, was the class of the field and swept the race, leading every lap from the pole position to earn his second career ARCA Menards Series win. To fill out the podium, Lavar Scott, driving for Rev Racing, and Brenden Queen, driving for Pinnacle Racing Group, would finish 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Report

Background

Madison International Speedway is a half-mile paved oval racetrack in the Town of Rutland near Oregon, Wisconsin, United States. With 18-degree banked turns, the track is billed as "The Track of Champions" and "Wisconsin's Fastest Half Mile." The weekly program at the track runs on Friday nights under NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series sanction.
The track opened in the 1950s as a dirt quarter-mile run by several organizations as Oregon Legion Speedway. Sam Bartus purchased the track in 1963 and paved the track. In 1969, he tore down the quarter-mile track and built a state of the art high-banked half-mile oval and named it "Capital Super Speedway". Fred Nielsen bought the track in 1980 with John and Sue McKarns running the track in 1980 and 1981. Tony Zidar and his brother Bob purchased the track in 1983 and the added 29 rows of grandstand seating along with a scoreboard on the backstretch. They built a quarter mile track in the infield of the half mile so that sportsman drivers from Jefferson Speedway could race at the track. The track resumed operation as a dirt track under the name of Impact Speedway from 1987 until 1989 under the ownership of Craig Henmen, where the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars made numerous appearances. The track was closed down until 1992 when Wayne Erickson, the owner of Slinger Super Speedway, took over. Wayne ran the track until 1996 when Jerry Fillner and his son Kevin Fillner took over. The Fillner family operated the track and made several improvements to the pits and upper concession areas. In 2003, Chicago area businessman Terry Kunes purchased the racetrack and hired Roy Kenseth to be the promoter. After two seasons Roy Kenseth started RK Promotions and decided to leave the track. Steve Einhaus was hired to fill the void left by Kenseth. In 2007, Einhaus would be focusing his attention on the newly formed ASA Midwest Tour Super Late Model Series. Track promotions were turned over to longtime competitor and official Dave Grueneberg. During his tenure, the track had weekly Friday night races in most seasons but in 2013 it was occasional Sunday afternoon races. In 2015, new ARCA Midwest Tour owner Gregg McKarns purchased the speedway from Kunes. He decided to run weekly Late Models races following the Big 8 Series rules with a monthly Super Late Model event. MIS was later announced as a weekly NASCAR Whelen All-American Series track starting in 2015. It was the third NASCAR weekly track in Wisconsin after Cedar Lake Speedway and La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway. The late models were designated NASCAR Division I, Sportsman as Division II, and Bandits as Division III.

Entry list

denotes rookie driver.

Practice

The first and only practice session was held on Friday, August 22, at 3:45 PM CST, and would last for 45 minutes. Tristan McKee, driving for Pinnacle Racing Group, would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 18.460, and a speed of.

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on Friday, August 22, at 5:15 PM CST. The qualifying procedure used is a single-car, two-lap based system. Drivers will be on track by themselves and will have two laps to post a qualifying time, and whoever sets the fastest time will win the pole.
Max Reaves, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, would score the pole for the race, with a lap of 18.453, and a speed of.

Standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings
PosDriverPoints
1Brenden Queen758
2Lavar Scott724
3Lawless Alan701
4Jason Kitzmiller636
5Isabella Robusto626
6Alex Clubb558
7Michael Maples537
8Brayton Laster525
9Brad Smith401
10Andy Jankowiak299

  • Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.